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Piano

Since the prime minister expanded the state of emergency nationwide, people living in Japan are strongly required to avoid going outside unless it's necessary. 100,000 yen will be given to each person by the government in May including foreigners living in Japan. The Japanese government is working very hard to prevent the virus from spreading. While staying at home, I practice the piano. I want to be good enough to play any songs without looking at pieces. I currently practice Disney and Ghibli songs with pieces made for beginners. I will use the 100,000 yen for daily necessities such as food and clothing.

Dream

I had a very exciting dream while taking a nap yesterday. I was in some English speaking country. Everything I experienced, for example, living in a foreign country, was new to me. I was supposed to join a live performance of a band as a performer but a stupid person had a wrong phone call to me to wake me up. I was not able to see what was going to happen next, but the whole experience was very fun for me.

I guess the reason why I had such a dream was I checked some job openings working in the Philippines. There were translating jobs and secretary jobs for Japanese people in Manila and Cebu. If we lived our normal lives without any influences of the coronavirus, I would definitely apply for one of them. But when I checked the current situations of these big cities, I thought I should not apply for them for now. Japan also has more confirmed cases day by day, so going to a foreign country is very difficult at this moment. But I will not give up living abroad in the near future.

Failures

Yesterday, I was reading a book titled “Failures Made by the People Who Changed the World” by Ono Masato. The Japanese author compiled failures made by twenty-four significant personalities such as Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, and Steve Jobs. The book was originally written for students so the contents were very easy to understand. I came across the book by chance while I was looking for a book on Kindle, a book reader device produced by Amazon. I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, a service provided by Amazon where the readers can read any books they want among the list of more than 20 million books for only 10 dollars a month. Nowadays, public libraries are closed in Japan. Since it is not advised to go to public places, the device and its services are very useful to pass the time and read books in my room.

Teacher's Roles

Online learning and teaching is getting more common these days. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, schools in many parts of Japan are closed and the students are required to stay at home. Some schools provide online lessons via internet but others use online learning services provided by private companies. The services enable the students to study at their own pace. The students can tackle to questions at their own pace and its AI technology provides suitable questions for each students depending on the degree of their understanding. It is getting more realistic and convenient that students do not have to go to school earlier to study by themselves. Temporarily, teachers at school will have less role and interactions with their students. I can foresee that this might continue on in the future if the condition goes back to normal operations on all businesses and schools. This is why I am looking for an IT engineering job to acquire new skills. I hope to get a job soon.

Backdrops

Recently, I watch many YouTube videos at home because it is not recommended to go into crowded places. I would like to check a backdrop of each video because if a backdrop is beautiful, the video itself also looks cool. As far as I know, Japanese YouTubers do not really stick to taking videos in front of beautiful backgrounds. They tend to shoot at home without any decorations. But famous YouTubers in other countries take videos at their “home studio.” They set up a room to make good looking videos. If I start to make videos, firstly, I would like to make sure that I have an interesting background to entertain my viewers.

Two Sides

There is a positive side to the coronavirus outbreak. Air and water quality is getting better in many parts around the world such as in China and Italy. As people stopped driving cars and operating factories, the natural environment is getting back to its original condition little by little.

Unfortunately, new confirmed cases have been reported in Kagawa Prefecture, where I currently live. There were only two cases last week, but there are already eight cases as of yesterday. I need to be extra cautious with my hygiene and be extra careful with my daily activities. Also, I should not go to the gym and the wall climbing facility until the outbreak is over. If I feel something is wrong with my sense of taste and smell, I have to call a public health care center and go to the hospital right away.

Facial Hair

It’s a hassle to shave my beard every morning, so I have taking facial hair removal treatment at clinics. I have been taking a laser treatment at a clinic more than 10 times, but the treatment didn’t make any change on my beard. Still, I have to shave my beard every morning. Yesterday, I went to a new clinic to take a different kind of treatment. At the clinic, each hair was picked out one by one. Once a hair is removed, no new hair will come out from the hole forever. 150 hairs were picked out but they were only some part of my whole beard. 150 hairs were for 10 dollars only but, if I want all of my beard to be removed, it will be expensive. I’m looking for a new way to remove all of them in an affordable way.  

Necessities

When I think about my necessities, the total about of things is not that big. Last winter, I only wore a same sweater repeatedly, so I didn’t buy any clothes besides the one. While working at school and doing exercises, I only have a few kinds of clothes for each purpose. Although I have a TV and recorder, I don’t watch TV programs at all so those are not my necessities. Recently I read books on Kindle so books won’t be a big burden for my relocation. All in all, I don’t need that many space to live. I want to use my money not to buy stuff but for services which makes me excited.

Studying Programming

I was watching videos of programming yesterday. It was about Javascript, Jquery, and vue.js. It was my first time studying those contents, so I felt that will take so long time to get familiar with those contents. But in order to be a programmer, you need to know those things at least. I applied for many job openings these days, but I have never received any good responses from companies. I need to study programming by myself to enhance my skills and to become a freelance engineer in the future. Once I become a freelance engineer, I can do what I want to do such as going abroad and study at university again. I will study harder to get used to the programming skills.

Flower Viewing

It is one of the best occasions to visit Japan because of warm temperature and cherry blossoms. The other best occasion is the end of summer or the beginning of autumn, it is about the end of September. Although we see many people who come to Japan at the beginning April, we rarely see foreign guests even Japanese people. I saw some pictures taken yesterday in Tokyo. There were few people walking in the busy cities. However, the number of people who were infected by the virus every day. Mayor of Kagawa Prefecture announced us not to have parties under cherry blossoms to prevent the virus from spreading. I enjoy seeing falling petals by walking along the trees alone.

Thesis

I was reading my thesis which I wrote in the third year at graduate school. The motive at that time was to provide meaningful opportunities for my future students of learning English. But as I graduated from school and started to work, my motive gradually decreased due to tasks besides teaching English. But my thesis made me remember that I studied at the school to become an English teacher. After reading my thesis, I come to think that I need to study English more to provide good lessons to motivate them to study English. I will work on my tasks harder.

Empty Shelves

When I went to a grocery store yesterday, some shelves were empty, such as the pasta section. I guess a lot of customers bought a lot of them to keep it at home so they wouldn't have to go out frequently in case of a lockdown order. Unlike in Tokyo and Osaka, the situation is not yet that bad here, but we need to start avoiding crowded places like bars, sports gyms, keeping a 1-meter distance from everyone as the number of reported cases increases in the neighboring prefectures. 
I applied to some companies but they haven't replied yet. I think they have many tasks besides hiring a new employee. I hope to get their replies soon to secure my future.

Masks

Japanese government announced that it will distribute two masks per person but I am not sure when we will get them. These two masks will last for only two days, how about the days after?

Yesterday, I found masks available on an e-commerce website, Wish and ordered 300 pieces of it. The price was about 20 dollars for 100 pieces. Next time I encounter a person who is looking for masks, I will refer the website to him/her.

There are two confirmed cases of the virus in Kagawa Prefecture so far. The number is increasing in the neighboring prefectures, so we need to be extra careful of crowded places and it is better to avoid them. I hope this outbreak will be over and our normal life will come back soon.

Job Loss

According to a web article, in America, the coronavirus job losses could be total 47 million and the unemployment rate may hit 32%. This unemployment number means that one third labor force cannot work and cannot get paid. A Japanese major league player who lives in Arizona shared his ideas on his YouTube video that hates against Asians and violence by guns to survive from poverty are likely to increase. It is so scary to imagine to happen such things in the world's biggest country. In Japan, it’s not yet common that people lost their jobs because once people are employed by a company, they will rarely be fired thanks to the labor low. But this unprecedented case might overturn our stereotype that employers are protected by the company.

Wall Climbing

I enjoyed wall-climbing inside a facility with my former colleagues last night. They are still working for the elementary school, so they kindly told me about updates of the school about such as new teachers and new desk arrangement in the teachers’ office. The new term will start next Monday, but classes will be held only in the morning because coronavirus might spread in the school if the students communicate closely for a long time. Sports Day is supposed to be held in May, but my colleague said it is not yet sure if the event will be held. I hope nobody will get the virus and the school will run smoothly. 

Piano

I think being able to play the piano is a huge advantage to develop good relationships with people, because nobody will get stressed in listening to its beautiful melodies it can create. These days, I often listen to music on YouTube played by amateur pianists. The songs I like are from Disney and Ghibli. Also, I also practice playing the keyboard in my room using beginners scores. Each notes have corresponding numbers used as a guide for us to know which fingers and keys are to be used. One of my goals is to play the piano during English classes for elementary school students. I will practice more so that I will entertain my future students. Who knows, one or two of my students might awaken their hidden talents and learn how they would love to learn playing the piano.

Credit Card

There are many banks in each prefecture. But I recently use a credit card of Rakuten Bank which doesn’t have any branches and customers can make application online. As you pay by the Rakuten card, you can get points and the points can be used at an online shopping site run by Rakuten. Also, you can deposit and withdraw money at convenience stores so you can save time to go to an ATM. The Rakuten card must be efficient for customers. This week, I canceled my contracts with two local banks because I haven’t used them anymore after making a contract with the Rakuten card. I’m worried if those local banks can survive under the threat of megabanks such as Rakuten Bank.

Free Day

Yesterday was the last day of the school year 2019-2020. I am still waiting for the replies from the companies I had interviews a few weeks ago. I quit my job a few days ago and I am changing my career from teaching to programming. I hope I can get the positive replies from those companies. Nowadays, I feel less stressed because I have time to rest for now. Yesterday, I did what I wanted to do. I took a nap, studied programming, went to the gym, and read books. If I can go anywhere without being worried about coronavirus, my daily life would be much better.